Behemoth
noun /bɪˈhiː.məθ/ — An enormous, powerful creature or thing
Definition
A creature of enormous size and power — from the Bible's Book of Job, where it is described alongside Leviathan. Used figuratively for anything of intimidating mass and momentum.
Beyond the definition
Power expressed as sheer physical mass. A behemoth doesn't threaten — it simply occupies. Its presence is the threat.
Origin & history
From Hebrew 'behemoth' (plural of 'behema', beast) — possibly from Egyptian 'p-ehe-mau' (water ox). Described in Job 40 as the greatest of God's creatures.
Example sentences
Illustrative sentences for learning, not verified community posts or sourced quotations.
The infrastructure project was a behemoth — it consumed resources and generated controversy in equal proportion for a decade.
She drove an ancient behemoth of a car that somehow kept surviving everything.
Amazon became the retail behemoth by doing many small things slightly better for slightly longer.
Synonyms
leviathan, titan, colossus, giant, mammoth
Antonyms
pygmy, minnow, lightweight
Related words
Word in the Wild
See how this word appears in life, language and stories.
Illustrative sentences and imagined stories for learning — not verified sightings, interviews, or sourced quotations.
Illustrative example
Intimidating Mass of Grazing Rhinos
A group of Indian rhinoceroses grazes together, their heavy bodies conveying immense physical size and power.
A behemoth is a creature of enormous size and intimidating momentum. The rhinoceroses, with their heavy, powerful frames and collective grazing presence, illustrate this word: they represent the physical manifestation of intimidation through pure mass, serving as an analogy for anything in life that possesses an overwhelming and heavy momentum.
Image credit: Soumil Mukhopadhyay · CC BY 4.0 (license)
Resized and converted to WebP; displayed with a fitted crop.